Author
Topic: Higurashi/Umineko (07th Expansion VNs)

So I played Umineko and loved it, and was considering trying the precursor(Higurashi), but the review here has me skeptical.

Consider that I don't mind Ryukishi's 'cartoonish' art. Despite the lacking quality, his knack for expressions makes up for it, especially in Umineko. That game had great music, too. (If you're into classical-infused techno, anyway.)

If I loved Umineko, will I really dislike Higurashi? Umineko was fan-translated, and Higurashi was official(sort of), but the former had a great translation. How was Mangagamer's for Higurashi?

I haven't read the review, mostly because I really like Higurashi and I'm very easily influenced by reviews, so I don't want to be made aware of any faults that I have not noticed. That being said, Mangagamer's translation for the first four chapters of Higurashi are very weak. Quite a few typos and grammatical errors, and I think I even recall a line or two that was still in Japanese. However, for chapters 5-7, the translation has been very good. I'm still on chapter 7, so I can't speak for chapter 8, but 5-7 have had very few flaws, and the translation reads very smoothly.

I read the review, and I can help a little. I can't say much for the translation (it probably sucks, because Mangagamer couldn't translate very well when it first started), but I do know that a good portion of the music is not in the game because they couldn't get the rights to it. And the graphics are worse than they are in Umineko. Thankfully, there are patches available that can unlock the rest of the music, and add PS2 graphics (now with non deformed hands!) to the game, which you can find using Google. The game is fantastic, by the way, the characters are about the same as in Umineko, so you won't have the same problems that the reviewer did, and the plot is absolutely incredible (especially the answer arcs) unlike Umineko's confusing train wreck. I would recommend playing it, or watching the anime version which is also quite good.

Personally I second the notion to just watch the anime instead of bothering with the VN. Considering the Higurashi VN is basically a 'still frame anime' (due to lacking any interactivity/gameplay which VNs like Corpse Party and 999 have) with inferior music, graphics, and translation; there's really no reason to 'play' it when the anime is an option (unless you're one of the fan types who has to experience every version of your favorite story; in which case have at).

Comparatively though, from what I've gathered over the net for the past few years, Umineko was more of a "Hey, we know what we're doing now and have turned 'decent' (Higurashi VN) into 'fantastic' (Umineko VN)." VN. And for some reason the anime version butchers the plot elements.

Where as comparatively the Higurashi anime (baring the bad nonsense that was 'ni Kai' and 'ni Rei') tells a smoother tale with less hick-ups than the VN. It's a weird role reversal.

While the Higurashi anime is a decent series in its own right, the original VNs are better. For example, two games were cut from the festival in Onikakushi-hen ("find something cute for Rena" and "shooting gallery") Also, the pre-festival events tend to be pretty rushed.